Most Wanted Fugitive

August 15, 1998
A FRIENDLY POSSE: A Former Green Beret and a Band of Unarmed Volunteers Hope They Can Help Eric Rudolph Surrender Peacefully.
By Knight Chamberlain / The News Observer
ANDREWS -- Asserting that he is offering Eric Rudolph "the finest deal he's going to get," former Green Beret James "Bo" Gritz outlined a plan Friday to help Rudolph, who has been charged in January's deadly abortion clinic bombing in Birmingham, Ala., surrender safely to federal authorities.

August 16, 1998
Volunteers Head Out on Their Own to Find Rudolph
By Knight Chamberlain / The News Observer
NANTAHALA NATIONAL FOREST -- A small but determined band of volunteers, led by the charismatic James "Bo" Gritz, headed into the Nantahala woods Saturday on a self-styled mission to help suspected Alabama abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph turn himself in to federal authorities.

August 17, 1998
Rudolph Searchers Forge Ahead
The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- Former Green Beret Col. James "Bo" Gritz said Sunday that he's encouraged by leads his band of 40 volunteers has received while searching dense forest for clinic bombing suspect Eric Rudolph.

August 18, 1998
Sighting Claimed in Search
By Paul Nowell / The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- One of former Green Beret Col. James "Bo" Gritz's volunteer searchers possibly encountered either clinic bombing suspect Eric Rudolph or his scout in the woods near here, Gritz said Monday.

August 19, 1998
A Local Approach: Gritz Wants Sheriff to Handle Arrest of Rudolph
By Paul Nowell / The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- Former Green Beret Col. James "Bo" Gritz vowed Tuesday to hand clinic bombing suspect Eric Rudolph over to local authorities if he surrenders and not to federal agents.

August 20, 1998
Time is Running Out in Gritz's Search for Rudolph
The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- Time became a factor Wednesday for former Green Beret Col. James "Bo" Gritz and his band of volunteers, who now have less than two days to bring abortion clinic bombing suspect Eric Rudolph out of the woods. In an interview, a weary Gritz showed that the ordeal of the last several days was exacting a toll.

September 15, 1998
Agents Seek Hunters' Help in Search
The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- Eric Rudolph's forest diet was the topic of a news conference federal agents called Monday, hoping an alert hunter might find a can or jar that could help nab the elusive suspect in an abortion clinic bombing.

September 26, 1998
Hunters Enlisted in Search for Fugitive
The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- Hunters spotted the first clue that Alabama clinic bombing suspect Eric Rudolph was holed up in the rugged North Carolina mountains and they're being called on again for help.

September 29, 1998
Federal Agents Want Hunters to Cooperate
By Knight Chamberlain / The News Observer
ANDREWS -- Five weeks after a band of volunteers failed to coax Eric Rudolph out of the Western North Carolina mountains, the Southeast Bomb Task Force is turning to hunters for help. Whether that help will be forthcoming in the search for the suspect in the bombing of an Alabama abortion clinic remains to be seen.

October 14, 1998
Rudolph Faces More Bombing Charges
Wire Reports
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is preparing to charge Eric Robert Rudolph, already a fugitive in an Alabama abortion-clinic bombing, with the 1996 bombing at the Olympics and two 1997 attacks in Atlanta, one at a gay bar and another at an abortion clinic, officials said Tuesday.

October 14, 1998
Rudolph Charged in Olympic Bombing
By Michael J. Sniffen / Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON D.C. — Federal authorities today charged Eric Robert Rudolph, one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives, with the 1996 bombing at the Olympics and two other attacks in Atlanta. Attorney General Janet Reno, accompanied at a news conference by FBI Director Louis Freeh, said the criminal complaint charging Rudolph with the Olympic blast and the 1997 bombings of a gay bar and an abortion clinic was being filed with a federal court.

October 15, 1998
More Rudolph Charges Accused in Atlanta bombings,
but His First Trial Probably Will be in Birmingham
Michael Brumas, Carol Robinson, and Peggy Sanford / The Birmingham News
Eric Rudolph, the fugitive wanted in the deadly bombing of a Birmingham abortion clinic, was charged Wednesday with three bomb attacks in Atlanta, including the 1996 Olympics blast. Despite the new charges in Georgia, Birmingham authorities said they expect Rudolph, a survivalist being sought in North Carolina, will be tried here first after his capture.

October 17, 1998
Rudolph Search Team to be Doubled
Wire Reports
Federal agents said Friday they will double to 200 the number of law officers searching the Appalachians for Eric Robert Rudolph, the man wanted in the Olympic Park bombing and three other attacks.

November 2, 1998
Hunt for Rudolph Intensified
By Carol Robinson / The Birmingham News
ANDREWS, N.C. — Eric Robert Rudolph has proven himself a worthy mountain fugitive, but it's only a matter of time before he succumbs to nature and the havoc it can wreak on one lone man, according to one of the Southeast Bomb Task Force lead investigators.

November 3, 1998
Officials Convinced Rudolph in Forest
By Carol Robinson / The Birmingham News
ANDREWS, N.C. - Birmingham federal prosecutors said Monday that their first trip to North Carolina's vast Nantahala National Forest solidified their belief that bombing suspect Eric Rudolph still hides there. "With the leads they're getting and all of the things they've come up with, it reinforces to me that we're on the right track," U.S. Attorney Doug Jones said Monday night. Despite many locals' opinion that Rudolph is long gone, authorities steadfastly maintain otherwise.

November 4, 1998
Rudolph Search Force Grows as Hunt Intensifies
The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- More federal agents will rejoin their colleagues this week in the North Carolina mountains to hunt for bombing suspect Eric Rudolph. Authorities think Rudolph, who is charged in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing and three Atlanta bombings, is hiding in a cave or underground hideaway with a trapdoor for a roof.

November 12, 1998
Agents Gear Up for New Efforts
By Paul Nowell / The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- The hardwood forests of the Southern Appalachians have mostly shed their brilliant fall foliage and the tourist trade has dwindled. But Andrews is bustling, and the inns are mostly full. Now that the tree canopy has disappeared, the Southeast Bomb Task Force is poised to intensify its search for accused bomber Eric Rudolph.

November 12, 1998
Shot Fired at Bomb Task Force Agent
By Paul Nowell / Associated Press Writer
ANDREWS, N.C. — A federal agent was nearly hit by a bullet when a shot was fired at the command post where federal agents are coordinating their search for bombing suspect Eric Rudolph. "Whether it was accidental or intentional ... we'll check it out," Patrick Crosby, a spokesman for the Southeast Bomb Task Force, said today. "A shot hit our building. It's not exactly a rural area, but there's a bunch of big fields. Weirder things happen." The shot, fired at the command post building around 8 p.m. Wednesday, "brushed the hair" of an agent but did not wound him, authorities said.

November 13, 1998
Shots Rake Rudolph Command Outpost; Bullet Grazes Agent
By Carol Robinson / The Birmingham News
Slugs from a high-powered rifle pierced the walls of the North Carolina headquarters where federal agents are directing the search for Eric Robert Rudolph. One bullet parted the hair of an FBI agent whom authorities have refused to identify. The agent was shaken but uninjured.

November 25, 1998
FBI Director Pays Visit to Agents in Manhunt
By Paul Nowell / The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- After flying into this North Carolina mountain community Tuesday to visit with federal agents searching for serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph, FBI director Louis Freeh refused to call his trip a morale-boosting mission.

December 14, 1998
Rudolph Picture Remains Sketchy
The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- Federal agents searching for alleged abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph want to bring him in alive. If he dies in the wilderness of the North Carolina mountains -- a victim of cold weather, disgruntled associates or his own paranoia -- there will be many unanswered questions.

January 20, 1999
Suspect Still in Hills, Agent Says
By Paul Nowell / The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- Cold weather and a low supply of food could give searchers new opportunities to find serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph, an official with the Southeast Bomb Task Force said Tuesday.

January 28, 1999
A Year Later, Clinic Like Fortress, Rudolph Still on the Run
By Jay Reeves / The Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM — In the early morning light, New Woman All Women Health Care doesn't seem to need much of the $4.5 million President Clinton is proposing to improve security at abortion clinics. A protective glow from a dozen bright lights already bathes the small, two-story building, which a year ago became the site of the nation's first fatal bombing at a women's clinic.

January 31, 1999
Rudolph has Eluded Authorities for a Full Year
The Associated Press
MURPHY, N.C. -- It has been almost a year since Billy Stiles got the phone call. The sheriff asked him to bring a tractor up the mountain, and there he found a gray 1989 Nissan pickup stuck in the mud and surrounded by federal agents. The pickup belonged to Eric Robert Rudolph, wanted in the bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic.

February 3, 1999
Time’s Running Out: If Rudolph Isn’t Caught Soon, resources are being wasted
Editoral / Observer-Times
Fayetteville (N.C.) -- Eric Rudolph is not, according to the latest evidence, a compulsive bomb-planter whose devices sometimes kill. Experts now portray Rudolph, a suspect in four bombings, as a compulsive killer who uses remote-control devices to make sure someone is murdered or maimed. If Rudolph is who and what the authorities think he is, it is more important than ever that he be captured and brought to justice.

March 15, 1999
Abortion Clinic Bombed
By Paul Nowell / The Associated Press
A S H E V I L L E, N.C., — Authorities investigating the weekend bombing at an abortion clinic said today they have no evidence to link the crime to serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph, but they’re not ruling it out, either. “We have no evidence, at this time, that this bomb is the work of Eric Rudolph,” U.S. Attorney Mark Calloway told a news conference at the Asheville federal building.

March 18, 1999
Freeh: FBI May Scale Down Investigators Searching for Rudolph
By Cassandra Burrell / The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The FBI may reduce the number of agents assigned to the year-old hunt for a suspected bomber in a remote area of North Carolina, Director Louis Freeh said Wednesday. About 100 investigative officers from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and local sheriffs departments are hunting for fugitive Eric Robert Rudolph in the 530,000-acre Nantahala National Forest, a rugged area at the state's western tip. The two federal agencies have a total of about 50 investigators on the case.

March 23, 1999
Federal Agents Say Break-Ins Make Them
Believe Eric Rudolph Still Around
By Paul Nowell / The Associated Press
ANDREWS, N.C. — Bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph may be responsible for a series of break-ins at mountain homes in which food, toilet paper and other supplies were stolen, federal agents said. Sometimes, the intruder wanted nothing more than a shower and a shave, members of the Southeast Bomb Task Force said Monday.

March 23, 1999
Agents Think Rudolph is Still in Search Area
By Paul Nowell / The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- Federal agents said Monday that bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph may have been the intruder who broke into mountain homes to steal food and toilet paper and sometimes just to get a shower and a shave.

June 5, 1999
Force Searching Mountains for Fugitive is Cut
The Associated Press
ANDREWS -- As summer approaches, the size of the government force being used to hunt for bombing suspect Eric Rudolph in the North Carolina mountains continues to shrink and now numbers less than 100. The latest reduction comes with the announcement by Georgia officials that they are recalling 25 prison guards who have been assisting in the search since its inception.

June 11, 1999
Back To Business Might As Well Look Elsewhere For Rudolph
Editoral / Observer-Times
Twenty-five prison guards on loan from Georgia were the latest to get word that they’re being recalled from the forests of western North Carolina.

July 12, 1999
Search for Bombing Suspect Resumes
By Paul Nowell / The Associated Press
ANDREWS, N.C. (AP) — It was a year ago that serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph slipped through a police dragnet, loaded up on food and gear at an acquaintance's home and vanished into the rugged Southern Appalachians. Since then, tracking dogs, 200 searchers and infrared-equipped helicopters have failed to find Rudolph in the dense mountain forests.

July 16, 1999
New Chief to Head Rudolph Search
Accused Atlanta Olympics Bomber Still at Large
By Michael J. Sniffen / The Associated Press
W A S H I N G T O N — The FBI named a 16-year veteran investigator Thursday to take over its frustrating, 18-month-old search for Eric Rudolph, the 32-year-old loner charged with bombing the Atlanta Olympics, two abortion clinics and a gay nightclub. Steven C. McCraw, 45, who has been an inspector at FBI headquarters here since May 1998, was selected to take charge of the Southeast Bomb Task Force on Aug. 1, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh announced. Woody Enderson, who has headed the task force since its inception in March 1998 and its predecessor Atlanta Bomb Task Force since 1997, has announced his retirement after a 28-year career in the FBI.

July 20, 1999
FBI Confident Fugitive Still Hiding in Mountains
REUTERS
ANDREWS — Federal agents remain confident suspected serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph is still hiding in the western North Carolina mountains more than a year after his last confirmed sighting. FBI Special Agent Woody Enderson Tuesday said Rudolph's trail has largely gone cold, but the fact that there have been no bombings linked to him since January 1998 is evidence he is still in the rugged mountains surrounding his boyhood home near Andrews, N.C.

July 21, 1999
Retiring FBI Chief Believes Rudolph's Still Alive
By Jon Ostendorff / Charlotte Observer
ANDREWS --The departing head of the manhunt for serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph said Tuesday he leaves with a gut instinct the fugitive is still alive in the Western North Carolina mountains. Southeast Bomb Task Force Inspector Woody Enderson said he believes Rudolph is living along the Appalachian Trail, which runs from North Georgia to Maine.

December 14, 1999
Departing ATF Director Believes Eric Rudolph is Dead
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) _ The departing director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms says he believes suspected serial bomber Eric Rudolph is dead. The task force leading the manhunt, however, said the search will continue. "My gut instinct is that he is still there, in a cave, and he's dead," ATF Director John Magaw told USA Today on Monday. "That's only my opinion.

December 14, 1999
U.S. Agents Continue Search For Bombing Fugitive
CHARLOTTE, NC. -- Federal agents will continue a scaled back manhunt for alleged serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph despite lingering suspicions he may have died while hiding out in the remote western North Carolina mountains, a federal spokesman said Thursday.

January 31, 2000
Lawsuit filed against Eric Rudolph
MSNBC
Fugitive Eric Rudolph is being sued by a nurse injured in an explosion at an Alabama abortion clinic he is accused of trying to blow up. An attorney for Emily Lyons says she’s suing Rudolph partly to block any profits he might receive from a book or movie deal. Lyons lost her left eye in the January 1998 bombing. The blast killed an off-duty policeman.

January 31, 2000
Alive or Dead, Eric Rudolph Is Gone
APN News
Former Cherokee County Sheriff Jack Thompson is still haunted by the day he arrived at a modest trailer to find food on the table, CNN blaring from the television, the front door open and Eric Robert Rudolph missing. Two years ago, Thompson and federal agents came within minutes of capturing the man suspected of deadly bombings at a Birmingham abortion clinic and Atlanta's Centennial Park -- or of being gunned down themselves. Thompson believes Rudolph is not far away, somewhere in the half-million acres of the Nantahala National Forest. Rudolph grew up exploring the area's hills and woods.

January 31, 2000
After 2 Years, Rudolph Trail Has Gone Cold
Chicago Tribune
The two-lane road leading to this small town in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains winds through the rugged wilderness that may have provided a refuge for suspected serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph, one of America's most wanted fugitives.

February 17, 2000
MANHUNT (Search For The Forest Fugitive)
By Barry Wigmore / Irish Independent
He's out there somewhere: a fugitive with a $1 million reward on his head, and his mugshot on hero-worshipping T-shirts saying ``Run Rudolph Run''. The T-shirts are faded now, the car bumper stickers pronouncing him ``World Hide and Seek Champion'' are peeling and spattered with mud.

March 17, 2000
Rudolph Search Has Cost At Least $13.4 Million
The Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) -- The 26-month search for bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph in the mountains of western North Carolina has cost at least $13.4 million in state and federal resources, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Friday. Rudolph, 33, is a suspect in the fatal 1998 explosion at a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic and three earlier bombings in Atlanta -- including the one in Centennial Olympic Park in 1996 that killed an Albany, Ga., woman. Led by the FBI, the multi-agency Southeast Bomb Task Force has been looking for Rudolph for two years in the Andrews, N.C., area, where the former carpenter is believed to be hiding out. Expenses in the search have ranged from salaries to helicopter flights, according to estimates provided to the newspaper.

March 17, 2000
Two-year search for Eric Rudolph: Dead, or still on run?
By Greg Barrett / Gannett News Service
NANTAHALA FOREST, N.C. - Last spring, 14 months into the fruitless search here for Eric Robert Rudolph, the suspected serial bomber, the leader of the manhunt sounded undeterred and cocksure. "We were brought here by Eric Rudolph and we will leave when we leave here with him," the FBI's Woody Enderson told reporters. "I'm a very patient person." Today, Enderson is retired from the FBI and lives in Charlotte, N.C., 200 miles and a world removed from this dark forest dense with rattlers, wild boar, towering hardwoods, and hundreds of caves and abandoned mica and copper mines.

May 31, 2000
FBI Changes Rudolph Search Tactics
MSNBC News
BIRMINGHAM – The FBI is turning to North Carolina residents to help find bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph. Investigators have been searching for Rudolph for more than two years in North Carolina. Rudolph is a suspect in the 1998 bombing of Birmingham’s New Woman All Women Healthcare Clinic. Now, investigators say catching Rudolph is still a priority and they’ll pay local hunters and trackers for tips.

June 1, 2000
FBI Enlists Hunters To Aid In Search For Rudolph
The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The FBI is paying outdoorsmen familiar with the remote mountains of western North Carolina to watch for signs of serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph, who has eluded a manhunt for more than two years. It's the latest tactic employed by authorities, who have had no luck in tracking down the experienced backwoodsman. Mike Stevens of the North Carolina Wildlife Commission said the scouts typically were paid between $15 and $20 an hour by the FBI. "They wanted to find someone who was willing to go up on the ridge tops at night and listen," he said. "They only wanted locals who knew the lay of the land."

November 15, 2000
Grand Juries Indict Suspected Bomber Eric Rudolph
CNN.com
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Suspected Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph was indicted Wednesday by grand juries in Atlanta, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama, in connection with a series of bombings that landed him on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. The 21-count indictment issued in Atlanta and the two-count indictment returned in Birmingham closely follow charges previously lodged against Rudolph, the subject of an intensive, but unsuccessful manhunt.

March 20, 2002
FBI Cuts Search For Accused Olympic Bomber
By Henry Schuster and Brian Cabell / CNN.com
ATLANTA, Georgia -- After a nearly four-year, more than $30 million manhunt, the FBI is scaling back its search for suspected 1996 Olympic bomber Eric Robert Rudolph, according to officials in the case. "We are pretty much done," said Todd Letcher, who runs the Southeast Bomb Task Force. The task force has also finished compiling evidence to be turned over to a defense team, should the case against Rudolph ever reach court. While Letcher said no final decision has been made, the fugitive part of the investigation will probably be transferred to the FBI's field office in Charlotte, North Carolina. That is most likely to happen in June, he said.

May 31, 2003
Eric Rudolph Captured in Murphy, N.C.
By Henry Schuster / CNN.com
Eric Robert Rudolph -- the man charged with the 1996 Olympics bombing, as well as the bombings of a gay nightclub and two women's clinics that performed abortions – has been captured, an FBI source told CNN. Two people were killed and many were injured in the attacks. A sheriff's deputy in Murphy, North Carolina, arrested a man believed to be Rudolph early Saturday morning without a struggle after he was found behind a business, Cherokee County Sheriff Keith Lovin told CNN.

The Capture in Murphy, N.C.

FBI Ten Most Wanted List
U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms